Auto smog control for spark and carburetor



July 20, 1965 B. WALKER 3,195,529

AUTO SMOG CONTROL FOR SPARK AND CARBURETOR Filed Feb. 15, 1965 Fig.1-

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' INVENTOR.

United States Patent 3,195,529 AUTO SMOG CONTROL FOR SPARK ANDCARBURETOR Brooks Walker, 1280 Columbus Ave., San Francisco, Calif.Filed Feb. 13, 1963, Ser. No. 258,219 Claims. (Cl. 1123-99) Thisinvention pertains to a combination spark and carburetor throttlecontrol for use in reduced smog producing vehicles. In such vehicles itmay be desirable to materially retard the spark at full idle and ondeceleration to get better burning in the cylinders. This results inhigher compression pressures at idle due to lower intake manifoldsuctions (as measured on a vacuum gage) with retarded spark than withnormal spark positions at idle and deceleration operations.

To get engine speed controls up to the speed that this same throttlesetting would give with normal spark advance, the foot throttle (or handthrottle) would first ad vance the spark to the normal setting for idleor 1200 r.p.m. and then in sequence leave the spark advance (breakerplate in the distributor) in the advanced position and then control thethrottle butterfly opening to provide more power up to full power atfull butterfly opening. I W

For best idle it may be desirable to have the butterfly in thecarburetor tightly closed and admit fuel free air below the butterfly tobe mixed with idle fuel in such quantities that with normal sparkadvance the engine will idle at about 1000-1200 r.p.m. To reduce theidle speed and improve the combustion in the engine cylinders at lowspeed idle the spark is retarded to 5-10 A.T.C. where the idle speedwill be below an obiectionable creepsay around 450 plus or minus r.p.m.

A vacuum spark advance on the breaker plate may also be desirable to getthe desired spark advance at all positions of the carburetor throttlebuterfiy from closed to wide open position as now employed on manycommercially produced automobile engines.

Others have provided vacuum controls to retard the spark for idle oridle and decelerations with closed throttles but no one has provided afoot throttle control that advances the spark from retarded idle sparkto a normal .advance before opening the throttle in sequence by theprogressive opening of the foot throttle.

An object of this invention is to provide a simple sequence of control-swhereby the foot throttle first advances the spark from a retarded lowspeed idle position to a fast idle spark advance and then opens thethrottle as the foot throttle is moved progressively from the closedfoot throttle position to the fully open position.

A dash pot and soft link between the foot throttle and the carburetorbutterfly (or connection to the transmission shift) may be used ifdesired, as shown in my application, Serial No. 183,185, entitled DashPot Carburetor Control, filed on March 28, 1962, by applicant.

Also, an idle fuel shut off on high speed deceleration may be used asshown in said same application or on other well-known devices forimproved smog control.

Another object of the invention is to obtain a full spark retard at allclosed positions of the foot throttle whether the engine is idling ordecelerating, keep the intake suction .at less suction than the idlesuction in most current automobiles around H.G., rather than 22' H6. fornormal idle. This results in higher idle compression pressures andbetter burning in the engine cylinders at idle and decelerations. Toincrease power from full idle, mechanically advance this spark for lowpower and low speed cruises, before the carburetor throttle is opened bythe foot throttle.

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Other objects will be more particularly pointed out in the accompanyingspecifications and claims.

I have illustrated my invention in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a carburetor, distributor andcontrols illustrating one form of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a Side elevation similar to FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a chart showing a possible spark advance throttle controlrelationship coming within this invention.

In all figures like numerals of reference refer to corresponding parts.

I have shown a carburetor 10 having a throat 11, a float chamber 12, afuel feed line 13, a throttle butterfly 14 mounted on a shaft 15. A fuelfree air intake 16 may have a flow control valve 17 to control the idleair.

The throttle butterfly shaft .15 has a bell crank 18 with two arms 20and 21. Arm 21 pivotally supports control rod 22 that goes to thetransmission shift control as used on automatic transmissions. Arm 20carries a slide swivel 24 that rides on throttle shaft 25. Collar 26 isadjustably mounted on a throttle shaft to abut against swivel 24 tostart opening throttle butterfly 14 after the the spark has beenadvanced in distributor 33. This spark advance is accomplished by collar27 moving to the right, as viewed in FIGS. 1 and 2, and breaker plate 32moving counter-clockwise, as viewed in FIG. 1, to advance the spark byspring 40 urging slide swivel 31 to follow collar 27 as the throttle rod25 is advanced to the right. Cotter pin 28 prevents the throttle shaft25 from being pulled out of slide swivel 31 accidentally. Cotter pin 28is preferably so placed as to not interfere with the spark advance whenthe throttle is fully opened. Throttle shaft 25 is attached to secondarythrottle rod 34 by pivot pin 35. The right end of rod 34 is pivotallysupported on arm 36. Arm 36 forms a bell crank with arm 37, both ofwhich are rigidly mounted on shaft 38. Foot throttle 41 is pivoted tothe floor boards 43 by pivot 42 and arm 44 is pivoted to the lower endof rod 39. The upper end of rod 39 is pivoted to arm 37.

By this linkage, when the foot throttle is closed, as shown in FIGS. 1and 2, the spark is retarded by the clockwise rot-ation of the breakerplate, as shown, to 5-10 A.T.C. As the foot throttle is opened the sparkis first advanced to normal idle advance 8-12 B.T.C. and then thethrottle starts to open as the foot throttle is progressively opened.The spark is also mechanically retarded whenever the foot throttle isclosed whether to idle or to decelerate. The fuel free air and idle fuelare so adjusted that the engine will idle at about 1000-1200 r.p.m. atnormal spark advance and at about 450 r.p.m. at full retard, as shown inFIGS. 1 and 2, for better burning of the fuel in the cylinders at less(gage reading) manifold suction than if normal spark advance 8-12 B.T.C.is used for conventional (not this engine) engine idle. A vacuum advancedevice 50, such 'as described in Auto Repair Manual, 1962 edition, page360, may be desirable This combination will give a spark advance curvesomewhat similar to that shown in FIG. 3, The spring in the vacuumadvance mechanism 50 on the vacuum side of the usual diaphragm is muchstiffer than the breaker plate spark advance spring 40. Spring 40 isincapable of moving the diaphragm and spring in vacuum advance mechanism50.

With this invention a suggested adjustment procedure is as follows:

Set throttle to tight closed position, with a normal idle sparkposition. Increase fuel free air to 1200 plus or minus r.p.m. Then pullspark back to 5-10 A.T.C. where engine idles about 450 without creep. Asfoot throttle opens, first spark will advance to normal idle lates manychanges in construction and" widely differing embodiments andapplications of the invention will sug- For more power gest themselveswithout departing from the'spirit and f scope of the invention. Thedisclosures and description herein are purely illustrative and are. notintended to be'in any sense limiting.

I claimas my invention: 1 p y 1. In combination with a vehicle enginehaving a carburetor, an ignition system, a breaker plate in saidignition system, and a throttle valve in said carburetor,"

tion system comprising: p an engine vacuum, operated advance andretard'rneans,

a lost-motion connection between said. engine vac uum operated means andsaid breaker plate,-

a foot operated throttle valve linkage including a footpedal, yieldablemeans urging said pedal to released position, a lost-motion connectionbetween said lingage and and said breaker plate, I yieldable meansconnected to said breaker plate to urge said plate in an ignitionadvance direction, said breaker plate being held in a retarded positionat fully released position'of, said pedal by said linkage yieldablemeans against said breaker plate yieldable, means, 7 I

said lost-motion connections providing a range of linkage controlledmovement of said breaker plate in an advance direction by said breakerplate yieldable means, as said pedal, is moved from closed position tothrottle valve idle position, and permitting breaker plate controlbeyond said range by said enginevacuurn operated means independently ofsaid'linkage when said. throttle valve is operated beyond idle position.V p 2. A device as defined in claim 1, said system including a speedresponsive ignition timing control means.

3. A'device as defined in claim' l, wherein said lostrnotion connectionincludes abutments fixed on said 7 I breaker plate and said throttlevalve control linkage.

- anadvance and retard control system for said igni-" 45A device asdefined in-claim 1, wherein said range of linkage controlled movementprovides engine idle ignition retard of at least 5 degrees. I

5. A device as defined in claim 1, wherein said range of linkagecontrolled movement as controlled'by said foot operated control being atleast 5 degrees of ignition spark retard.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS V 1,962,931 ,6/34Mallory 123-1171 2,045,829 '6/36 Boyce 123, 117 2,103,348 12/37 'Boyce r7123-117 FRED E. ENGELTHALER, Primary Examiner.

1. IN COMBINATION WITH A VEHICLE ENGINE HAVING A CARBURETOR, AN IGNITIONSYSTEM, A BREAKER PLATE IN SAID IGNITION SYSTEM, AND A THROTTLE VALVE INSAID CARBURETOR, AN ADVANCE AND RETARD CONTROL SYSTEM FOR SAID IGNITIONSYSTEM COMPRISING: AN ENGINE VACUUM OPERATED ADVANCE AND RETARD MEANS, ALOST-MOTION CONNECTION BETWEEN SAID ENGINE VACUUM OPERATED MEANS ANDSAID BREAKER PLATE, A FOOT OPERATED THROTTLE VALVE LINKAGE INCLUDING AFOOTPEDAL, YIELDABLE MEANS URGING SAID PEDAL TO RELEASED POSITION, ALOST-MOTION CONNECTION BETWEEN SAID LINGAGE AND AND SAID BREAKER PLATE,YIELDABLE MEANS CONNECTED TO SAID BREAKER PLATE TO URGE SAID PLATE IN ANIGNITION ADVANCE DIRECTION, SAID BREAKER PLATE BEING HELD IN A RETARDEDPOSITION AT FULLY RELEASED POSITION OF SAID PEDAL BY SAID LINKAGEYIELDABLE MEANS AGAINST SAID BREAKER PLATE YIELDABLE MEANS, SAIDLOST-MOTION CONNECTIONS PROVIDING A RANGE OF LINKAGE CONTROLLED MOVEMENTOF SAID BREAKER PLATE IN AN ADVANCE DIRECTION BY SAID BREAKER PLATEYIELDABLE MEANS AS SAID PEDAL IS MOVED FROM CLOSED POSITION TO THROTTLEVALVE IDLE POSITION, AND PERMITTING BREAKER PLATE CONTROL BEYOND SAIDRANGE BY SAID ENGINE VACUUM OPERATED MEANS INDEPENDENTLY OF SAID LINKAGEWHEN SAID THROTTLE VALVE IS OPERATED BEYOND IDLE POSITION.